Ethical practices of earnings management: are differences related to gender or occupation?

Stéphanie Thiéry (), Stéphane Lhuillery () and Cristiane Benetti ()
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Stéphanie Thiéry: ICN Business School, CEREFIGE - Centre Européen de Recherche en Economie Financière et Gestion des Entreprises - UL - Université de Lorraine
Stéphane Lhuillery: NEOMA - Neoma Business School
Cristiane Benetti: ICN Business School, CEREFIGE - Centre Européen de Recherche en Economie Financière et Gestion des Entreprises - UL - Université de Lorraine

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Abstract: Recent works in the gender literature identify some masculinization of women's behaviors within companies. However, the scope and significance of this phenomenon remains largely unexplored with most studies tending to focus on one particular hierarchical position or job. The present study considers the range of occupations in the accounting sector, identifying the positions of chief financial officer (CFO), financial analyst, and statutory auditor (the stakeholders) to consider whether the different earnings management (EM) practices are deployed differently by men and women occupying the same accounting positions. The ethical EM practices applied to the above three hierarchical positions show that a masculinization process might be mitigating gender differences among these upper accounting positions. We draw on an original accounting 59 stakeholder survey conducted at the international level to propose an econometric model that identifies the effects of both gender and job position on EM practices. Our results confirm that the relationship between gender and ethics is not obvious since women tend to favor less ethical EM practices. They confirm also that decisions about the type of EM depend on the type of stakeholder - CFO, analyst, statutory auditor - involved in the financial reporting process. We introduce interaction effects which show that these practices per position depend on gender: female analysts and female auditors are subject to EM definitions that are in line with those of their male counterparts and in contrast to the position of female CFO, these job positions favor more ethical instruments. We discuss the implications of the heterogeneous masculinization process we identify. Overall, our work on the EM phenomenon contributes to research on gender differences and their complexity by providing more fine grained information on professional differences

Date: 2023-07-26
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Published in Academy of Sustainable Finance, Accounting, Accountability and Governance (ASFAAG), Jul 2023, Valencia, Spain

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04326713

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